Jacks win at Southern Utah, move to 5-0

Thursday, January 5

Cedar City, Utah

8:00 PM

South Dakota State University

Southern Utah

1/6/2012 12:02:00 AM | Men's Basketball

By: SDSU Sports Info

CEDAR CITY, Utah - South Dakota State overcame a one-point halftime deficit and fought through 11 lead changes and eight ties to hang on for a 75-68 win at Southern Utah on Thursday to remain undefeated in league play at 5-0.

In addition to the perfect league mark, the Jackrabbits improve to 13-4 overall, while the host Thunderbirds fall to 7-8 overall and 3-2 in Summit League play.

"This is a great win, maybe one our best wins," head coach Scott Nagy said after the game. "We just didn't have a lot of energy all night, we didn't shoot the ball well, we didn't have our legs, I think the altitude affected us and we played with a short bench."

The Jacks and T-Birds went back-and-forth, with neither team taking a lead of more than four points until a pair of Chad White free throws put the Jacks up 61-55 with 6:32 left in the game. Before the Jacks could go up by six though, they needed to get the lead, which they got for good at the 10:30 mark of the second half on a Nate Wolters steal and layup.

From there, SDSU pushed its lead to as many as 10 points, and never let Southern Utah get any closer than five points, which it did not do until only eight seconds remained in the game.

Wolters finished a game-high 28 points, adding six assists and four each in rebounds and steals. White finished with 13 points off the bench, as the Jackrabbit bench outscored the T-Bird bench 18-8, despite playing just three players off the bench.

Brayden Carlson and Griffan Callahan both added 10 points , with Callahan leading the way with seven rebounds.

Jackson Stevenett led a pair of Thunderbirds in double figures with 25 points. Matt Massey added 17 points and a game-high 10 rebounds to complete the game's only double-double.

The Jackrabbits put their 5-0 league record on the line again on Saturday, when they face Oral Roberts, the only other 5-0 team in the league. The Jackrabbits and Golden Eagles tipoff from Tulsa at 7:05 p.m.

NOTES: SDSU improves to 7-2 all-time against Southern Utah, with wins in each of the last six games ... the Jackrabbits and Thunderbirds played at Centrum Arena in Cedar City, Utah in front of an announced crowd of 1,981 ... Thursday's game marked the final Summit League game between the two teams in Cedar City, as Southern Utah leaves the league after the season for the Big Sky Conference ... Wolters' 28 points gives him 1,251 for his career, leaving him nine points shy of passing Mark Schultz (1,259 points from 1983-86) for 18th on the all-time list at SDSU ... Wolters' six assists gives him 369 for his career, good for sixth all-time at SDSU, and 18 shy of passing Tom McDonald (386 assists from 1982-86) for fifth all-time ... Carlson scored in double figures for the third straight game for the first time in his career ... the win gives Nagy 302 wins for his career, making him the most prolific coach in SDSU basketball history, as he passes former women's coach Nancy Neiber, who won 301 games from 1984-2000